Caveat emptor

By Christian Marx

It is important to remember that everything the Right do policy wise, is economically or power related. Their core goal is to extract as much of the wealth from society as possible. All other concerns that appear outside this sphere benefit the ruling class in some way. Here are some examples:

Privatisation: The idea is to sell all public infrastructure, which is run for the benefit of society, such as education, gas, water, electricity, healthcare, public transport etc. The Right hate that the state can provide a more efficient, cheaper and reliable alternative for the general public. They also loathe the fact that their business lobby friends cannot make money from state organised services.

Instead, they deliberately run public services into the ground when they are in government for the sole purpose of selling these assets at bargain basement prices to their big business friends. This ensures that prices skyrocket, a few CEOs and board members get obscenely rich, and the politicians who are involved in this highway robbery get lucrative jobs after they leave parliament.

Repealing racial vilification laws: This is done so as to take even more rights from minority groups, and to deliberately divide the populace along racial, religious and ideological divides. It also gives the corporate run press carte blanche to print the vilest stories in order to further their economic hegemony and put the blame on certain races and minority groups for the failings and destruction of the capitalists themselves. For example, blame refugees for taking Australian jobs, when the real destruction of jobs comes from Neoliberal, free trade agreements.

Pushing for non-compulsory voting: They use this ruse to push for “individual liberty” when the real agenda is to stop the poor and disenfranchised from voting. Statistics show that in non-compulsory voting countries, the very rich always vote, while the poor, the marginalized and the disenfranchised opt out. This gives the wealthy elites even greater power over the electorate. This was one of the main reasons George Bush was able to win a second term in the U.S.

Scapegoating minorities: This is a classic case of divide and conquer. This tactic is used to cover up for the capitalist state`s own attacks on the middle class and the poor. Whenever there is some kind of anti worker policy, you can bet that the bogey man of asylum seekers or boat people will be wheeled out. Dividing people along racial, religious or perceived economic gain is a sure way to weaken political resistance against the state, allowing damaging legislation, which impacts on the average workers standard of living.

This rhetoric taps into the hatred and xenophobia that the less educated and prejudiced have for anyone different. Demonising minorities is also a clever way to draw attention away from those who are really at fault (corporations and government) to a perceived threat that the refugees are taking jobs or receiving concessions etc.

Threat of terrorism: While there is no question that terrorism is a problem in the world today, this threat is magnified and blown out of all proportion. Fear is a very powerful tool that is utilized by regimes that want to control people. A classic example of this at work was after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Some sections of the media and the far Right, along with the Bush administration, created an air of paranoia and fear. They advocated that citizens may have to give up certain freedoms in order to remain safe from the ever present threat of terrorism. While precautions were absolutely warranted, the government were able to legislate extremely draconian data retention programs on their citizens.

This can set a dangerous precedent. A rogue government could use these powers to silence political or anti-corporate dissenters, and then label them as “enemies of the state” or “terrorists”. Many examples of this tactic have now come to light in the U.S. The smear campaign against whistleblowers such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning are just 3 high profile cases. Corporate media relentlessly demonised these three individuals and tried to manufacture public opinion against them.

Imperialism: Corporate run governments have a disturbing tendency to advocate for war on a regular basis. Why? Because war is a very profitable industry for banks, manufacturing firms, and of course the private companies who stand to make a fortune from stealing another nations energy sources, usually gas or oil. People need to wake up to the fact that their governments are corrupt and unethical. Once a government is controlled by industry, democracy is threatened.

In Australia, hundreds of thousands marched against the Iraq war … yet it made no difference. The military industrial complex was determined to invade another sovereign nation and extract its resources for their personal greed, no matter what the human cost.

Remember that when the wealthy propagandists tout the word liberty … they do not mean liberty for the poor and the middle class. Rather, it is the liberty to exploit the vulnerable and meddle with government policies for capital benefit. Voters need to start doing their critical research. Caveat emptor!